Pedestal
by NachoSammich
Summary: You're not precisely sure where it started. It's unexpectedly difficult to put a label on it, to pinpoint the exact moment that your focus had shifted from one Xiaolin Warrior to the other. Chase-centric, with hints of Chai.


**Title:** Pedestal

**Genre:** Fanfiction

**Fandom:** Xiaolin Showdown

**Rating:** G

**Pairing:** hints of Chase/Rai, though mostly gen

**Date written: **February 21, 2012

**Status:** Complete

**Notes: **I found this old piece in the vast sea of my fanfiction folder, and to my surprise it's actually rather good despite having been written almost a year ago. So here you go. Enjoy the mild hints of Chai.

* * *

You're not precisely sure where it started. It's unexpectedly difficult to put a label on it, to pinpoint the exact moment that your focus had shifted from one Xiaolin Warrior to the other.

Certainly you'd been aware of Raimundo Pedrosa from the very beginning, just as you'd been aware of all the monks. You'd caught wind of the newest crop of elemental dragons before they'd even arrived at the Xiaolin Temple, and had spent quite a lot of time and energy learning everything you could about them. They were certain to be brimming with potential, being so young and yet chosen to become elemental dragons. The last group of elemental dragons had been hundreds of years ago, and you'd thought the Xiaolin had all but forgotten that they existed.

You'd learned everything you could about them, using your considerable resources and talents to dig up every last detail, both significant and insignificant. You knew their birthdays, their heights, their weights, their blood types, their likes and dislikes, their families, their bloodlines...everything you could find, you filed away for future reference. "Know your enemy," as the saying goes. A rule to live by, as far as you're concerned.

The four young monks had seemed surprisingly mundane to you at first. Previous generations of elemental monks had been hand-picked from the upper crust of the world. Sons and daughters of kings and great warriors, of successful merchants and brilliant scholars. Of this motley crop, only Tohomiko appeared to have any sort of station or class, being the only daughter of a wealthy businessman. Bailey was the only son of a rancher, and while his family's ranch was successful and well-off as ranches went, it was hardly prestigious or upper-class. Pedrosa was a mutt, a street rat living in poverty with an obscene amount of siblings and no real parents to speak of. And Omi...Omi was an enigma. He had no living family; indeed, it was nigh impossible to find **_any_** information on his family.

At the beginning, you'd decided to hold back, to remain in the shadows as was your preference. Even when Wuya was released - and oh yes, you'd _felt_ that particular surge of Heylin power - even when the Shen Gong Wu began to reveal themselves, you remained hidden. You had no use for such trinkets, and no real interest in the Xiaolin Monks at first.

That did change over time, as you watched them train and become stronger, as Omi in particular showed great potential and power. You revealed yourself to them in person, studied their reactions, began laying your trap and weaving your plans to bring Omi to the Heylin side.

And as you'd thought, he fell easily.

Your victory hadn't lasted long, however. True to form, the other young monks had rushed to Omi's rescue, challenging you to a Showdown they were sure to lose. And yet Omi had proven surprisingly resourceful in said Showdown, tricking you, catching you off guard, and eventually winning the day.

You'd intended to regroup, to concoct another scheme, to figure out another way to win Omi to your side...but then Hannibal Roy Bean had been released, and everything became a competition. Suddenly you'd had to deal with _two _potent forces of Heylin running amok beyond your control; while neither of them had much power to speak of, you'd known better than to underestimate their scheming.

The days had gone by, one frustratingly tedious battle after another. The Xiaolin gathered more and more Wu while the Heylin side plotted and schemed and didn't accomplish much of anything. You could feel the balance shifting, and knew that time was running short as the young monks - one in particular - grew closer to the Shoku Warrior level with every passing day.

You hadn't expected that one to be Pedrosa.

Of course, you hadn't expected Omi to be so foolish as he was, to upset the balance of the universe so severely as to create an entire alternate timeline. You remember that timeline - a lifetime of living in fear, of hiding on the very edge of society. You'd been _weak _in that timeline; pathetically, unforgivably _weak._

And yet it is the memories from that other life that led you to where you stand now, crouched on a tree branch high in an Alpine forest, watching the Xiaolin Monks below you as they seek out Dashi's most recently revealed gewgaw.

It had become clear to you after that whole fiasco that Raimundo Pedrosa had far more potential and power within him than you'd initially assumed. He was - is - resourceful, strong-willed, clever, and most importantly, there is a certain...darkness within him. Perhaps it has always been there or perhaps it has only manifested itself recently, but it is most certainly _there. _

He has wavered before; indeed, that is why you'd never bothered to try corrupting him. It would be _far_ too easy, you'd thought. Even _Wuya_ had managed to sway him to her side, however briefly.

And how amusing that both Wuya and Hannibal Roy Bean had tried and failed to win Pedrosa's loyalty! You laugh quietly, recalling Bean's spectacular failure. True to form, he had put all his effort into flashy tricks and honey-coated words, and had been far too blind to see that he'd been tricked until it was too late. Wuya, on the other hand, had had the right idea at first, appealing to the boy's greed and his fondness for finery. Her error had been in underestimating Pedrosa's need for human contact, a need borne from a lifetime of being surrounded by other human beings, and never alone. Were he to be left completely alone, you're positive that he would go mad.

You _had_ thought that turning Pedrosa would be too simple, too worthless, too _meaningless..._

But now you have the memories of another life plaguing you. Memories of living and training alongside Pedrosa, of watching him grow as a warrior through your own eyes as opposed to the haze of a viewing orb, of growing to _care_ for him, in more ways than one...

You'd been too pathetic to admit it to him in that other life. You'd watched him grow closer to the other monks - to Spicer in particular - and you had pushed your own wishes aside like the naïve fool you were. Such feelings were hardly _proper_ for a Xiaolin warrior. Surely Pedrosa would not have _returned_ them.

You smirk to yourself now as a flash of black and red catches your eye in the foliage below. You'd been such an _imbecile _in that life. You are no such fool now. No. Now, you will succeed where Wuya and Bean have failed. You will plant the seeds of doubt within his psyche and tend them until they've consumed him whole. You will bring him to your side and keep him there, truly corrupt him and ensure that he never strays. And why would he want to? You will give him all he's ever wished for, all he's ever dreamed of, and ask for nothing in return but his eternal allegiance. And you will not leave him to drown in his own loneliness as Wuya did. No, you have a _plan,_ and you are _quite_ certain that this plan will succeed.

After all, the boy is human, and humans are _weak. _Prone to temptation. While you may have resisted such temptation in your other life as a Xiaolin, Pedrosa is not so strong-willed. It will be almost _too_ easy to seduce him to your side, and yet it shall be a challenge. One you will most certainly _enjoy._


End file.
